Uniqueness
by EmberwolfSasha
Summary: People are disappearing and showing up again with missing or extra body parts dead. When a woman reported missing shows up again with an extra pair of arms and she's still alive, the Fringe division steps in to see if they can illuminate what's happened.


Hi there! This here is my first fanfic. I hope you enjoy it!

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Peter yawned widely just as the lab cow, Gene, mooed. He shot the cow an amused glance. Given all he'd seen and learned it wouldn't surprise him if the cow was actually smart enough to do it on purpose. He glanced at his watch. _Shouldn__'__t be long now_, he thought. Olivia should be back any moment. He didn't dwell too much on that fact; instead he turned his attention back to his father. The man needed constant watching. He used to hate being a glorified babysitter but after a while he had grown more tolerant of Walter Bishop. His father was currently trying to figure out what had happened to the woman who was eating ice cream in the old Harvard lab. "Aha! I got it!" Walter suddenly exclaimed. Peter doubted his father had figured out anything. The older man had been doing nothing besides eating ice cream with the woman for the past half hour. The pistachio ice cream they were eating was from Walter's stash.

The woman had been found the day before wandering a downtown street naked. The weirdest part was that she had four arms and an intelligence equivalent to an infant. It wasn't that she was incapable of learning, just that she didn't know anything. Normally the case wouldn't have fallen to them but two other people had been found dead of unknown causes with extra or missing parts as well. That meant it was more likely to be experimentation on humans. "Find something, Walter?" Olivia asked. She had just entered the lab holding a folder that might help them figure out what had happened to Jillian. As Walter responded to Olivia, Peter's earlier guess that his father hadn't learned anything more about the woman was confirmed. "Oh, yes. I remembered the flavour of my favourite ice cream," the eccentric doctor told the FBI agent excitedly. The seventeen years at St. Claire's mental hospital had left Walter less than lucid most of the time.

Olivia's smile made Peter grin too and he approached her, holding out a coffee for her. "Thanks." She took a sip before getting on with what she'd come to tell them. "Jillian Mackie was reported missing over three weeks ago by her husband. I went to see him and found out that she was taking experimental drugs for leukemia." Peter could see why that would set off alarm bells. He spoke his thought aloud, "The other victims were taking experimental drugs too. Maybe they caused this woman's state." He was hoping for a normal answer, for Jillian's sake. He glanced at the four armed woman and mentally cringed. His moral compass didn't always point due north but he knew doing something like that to a person was just wrong. Jillian had either grown or had a second pair of arms attached. The extra pair hung limply at her sides just below her natural arms. They appeared to be dysfunctional. The curious stare she pinned on everyone unnerved Peter.

"Drugs have to pass inspection before they can be tested on humans. Someone would have noticed mutation and death," Olivia pointed out, bringing Peter out of his thoughts. Peter admitted she had a point. He sighed in defeat. They never could catch a break, could they? A concrete lead right away was too much to ask for. It was time to channel the Walter…or attempt to. "Hey Walter, any ideas about this?" Peter asked. No response. He walked impatiently over to the older man and took away his bowl. "Walter! Ideas?" His father's expression grew serious and it looked like maybe, just maybe…. "Son, it's not polite to take my ice cream. If you wanted some you should have gotten some for yourself." No epiphany.

Peter stalked away from his father with the bowl. It was frustrating that Walter was in that state most of the time. The brief flashes of lucidity…those were why he stayed and continued to help out. Not even privately would he admit that Olivia Dunham was part of the reason. "Walter, you just…argh! People are _dying_ Walter and you're the only one with even a slight chance of figuring this out," Peter snapped angrily, pacing in front of the child-like woman. Peter was a genius like his father but he didn't have the experience Walter did. His father used to work on secret projects with his partner and owner of Massive Dynamic, William Bell (or Belly, as Walter called him). The doctor watched his son pace while Olivia moved towards Peter. "Peter calm down. We'll figure this out. We always do." She told him. Peter eyed the FBI agent in disbelief. How was she not frustrated with Walter? He took a deep breath to try and calm himself. Silence fell over the lab. Wait, silence? Although unable to speak Jillian had been constantly shifting or making small, baby-like sounds.

It was Walter that approached the woman first to check her pulse. "Oh my. She's dead," he said. Peter couldn't tell if he was upset or excited at the new development. "Great. Just what we needed. Let's get ready for the next one!" He said with annoyance. Olivia frowned slightly at Peter's words before asking Walter, "You really have no idea what this could be? No previous experiments or even just a wild guess?" Peter considered himself a good judge of character. It sounded to him like Olivia was beginning to get worried. Seeing her worry made him realize she'd been right; getting angry or upset wouldn't help. Peter decided to lighten the mood by saying, "Hey, maybe she's a clone gone wrong." Walter suddenly grasped his shoulder, smiling broadly. "Why Peter, you're absolutely right. Of course, of course. I came up with the theory with Belly. We figured we could use the cerebrospinal fluid to create clones. We tried it with rats but the clones just kept dying. Normally it happened sooner than Miss…happened sooner than her death. Perhaps someone decided to continue my research." The doctor explained in a tone that reminded Peter of an excited kid.

"Hold on, what are you saying Walter?" Olivia asked, not sure where the doctor was going with his explanation. Peter stepped in with an explanation, a little bemused that he'd guessed right. "The victims all had acute leukemia, which means they had to get their spinal fluid checked frequently. The perfect opportunity for whoever's behind this to collect some samples for cloning. They probably abducted the originals after they started the cloning process in case it worked or they needed more spinal fluid. It's also likely that the person or people we're looking for work at one of the hospitals doing the drug trials…" Peter explained. He'd long since gotten used to translating and expanding on Walter's words.

That was more than enough for Olivia. She thanked the Bishops for their help and went to leave. After a moment Peter caught up to her. "I'm coming too," he told her. Protect what was important to him, that's what he believed in. Then again, it was Olivia who had the gun. "Let's go get the bad guy." He was silently amused that she didn't argue with him. He assumed it was because Olivia knew it wouldn't work.

On the way to Boston General Peter admired Olivia's focus. It always amazed him how dedicated to her work she was. It also disturbed him a little bit if he was being honest…. He hoped that the people the clones had been made from were still alive. When they arrived Peter and Olivia split up to ask some doctors and nurses if any coworkers had been acting strange or been absent recently. None of the other clones had lived as long as Jillian, so Peter thought they might have been spooked and been in hiding or, worse, had fled. When he conferred with Olivia their results were much the same. It seemed to him like their target was a Doctor O'Malley. Peter offered to drive to the man's house. While he drove he felt a mid of excitement and apprehension. He had a strong feeling that they were driving towards the man who'd given life to that poor clone.

He pulled up in front of the house and got out of the car. He circled around towards the back of the house while Olivia went to the door. He found a backdoor to the house and leaned on the wall right next to it. He suddenly heard a series of crashes from inside the man's home and Olivia's shouted "Freeze!" The door just to his left opened and he jumped the doctor before he could flee. It wasn't much of a fight. Peter hit the guy a couple of times and he was too disoriented to do anything. He noticed Olivia at the door. She gave him a nod a Peter felt a surge of pride. He'd caught the bastard! "Are they there?" He asked, referring to the originals of the clones. "Yes. I think they'll be alright," she responded. Peter watched her handcuff O'Malley with a slight smile. Not bad for a day's work!


End file.
